A teenage girl, raised in the gang life, was turned over for prostitution by her own mother for the group's benefit.

She was trafficked to different cities, her body sold to strangers, kept drugged and regularly beaten into submission.

Tears flowed down her face as she recounted the horrible existence to law enforcement interviewing her after the criminals were busted.

Sadly, it is a true local story, according to an advocate.

Tragically, it is happening across California. And Stockton, not only has been part of the circuit that underage girls, boys and women are passed through, it is an area where gangs are becoming increasingly involved in the trafficking of prostitutes and victims who are forced to work in the sex trade.

"It's a new phase in gang activity," said Deputy District Attorney Mark Dennings, a prosecutor in the gang unit. "They feel that prostitution and human trafficking is something law enforcement is not looking into.

"So when the gangs change their (modus operandi) our law enforcement needs to change the way they do things."

That's exactly what local law enforcement and prosecutors say they are doing.

Human trafficking, generating $32 billion a year, is among the fastest growing criminal industries in the world, according to the state Department of Justice.

But gang involvement has widely gone under the radar in the U.S., a 2011 study says.

The U.S. had prosecuted more than 200 cases by 2011 that mentioned human trafficking and yet charges for those specific crimes were not filed. Charges have been more focused on drugs, weapons, robberies, murder and other felonies, said study author Professor Laura J. Lederer, of Georgetown Law Center.

In Stockton, although prostitution has been an ongoing issue, authories have seen it as a quality of life problem and a job for vice units.

Local authorities, however, have begun looking at the problem from a different perspective, as attention on human trafficking grows nationwide, and they peel away layers of Stockton's underground sex trade.

Although they've only recently begun investigating it as gang activity, what authorities are uncovering is the serious victimization of individuals, many of them teens. And what they're seeing is the money and power selling sex is providing gangs.

"It's not just going into someone's pocket," Dennings said. "It's going into the criminal street gang, which is creating more criminal activity."

Dennings, for instance, is in the process of prosecuting one of the most notorious alleged gang leaders.

Michael McKinnney, the alleged founder and leader of Sutter Street Crips, is charged along with nearly a dozen others, on about 40 felony counts, including human trafficking, pimping, pandering, kidnapping, attempted robbery and sales of narcotics. McKinney's crew is suspected of trafficking girls as young as 14. The case is pending.

Deputy District Attorney Elton Grau, who handles child sex abuse cases, said gangs see the sex trade as a quicker and less risky way to profit.

"They're able to hide these girls easier than guns and drugs," Grau said. "We're not dealing with the romantic view of prostitution. These girls look well dressed ... some of them look like high school students."

The overhead is low.

"You can only sell the drug once. But a person, you can sell them over and over and over again," added Suzanne Schultz, coordinator of the District Attorney's family crimes unit.

Pimping alone can land perpetrators three, four or six years in state prison.

But prosecutors are hitting harder by tacking on enhancements, ranging from as many as four more years for a gang enhancement to a life term for the trafficking of a minor.

The big challenge, Dennings said, "is what to do with these women, especially the underage women."

In these cases, there is no ballistic evidence, dead bodies, large drug quantities or other physical evidence, said Stockton police Detective Paul Gutierrez.

The key is witness cooperation. But fear of breaking silence is more intense in gang cases because of the influence and intimidation criminal organization spread on the streets.

"It's a huge problem," Gutierrez said.

Courtney Baldwin, a youth advocate and former victim of human trafficking, said the ability to run away is tougher. The level of violence is higher. Gangsters have more people watching the girls.

Baldwin spoke to that teenage girl who had been handed over for prostitution by her mother.

"There are a lot of things she went through," Baldwin said. "This is a whole gang of people taking advantage of this 16- or 17-year-old girl."

Baldwin recalls the reaction of officers as they heard the girl's shocking story and realized the magnitude of the problem.

"They were nearly in tears," Baldwin said. The teen has since been taken to an undisclosed location for her protection.

"The public sees these girls as non-victims a lot of times," Gutierrez said. "You get so many uncooperative people and they continue with the lifestyle, but when you get cooperative victims, you finally see it."

They are individuals "who just didn't have a chance," Gutierrez said. The majority are vulnerable to being lured. They come from foster homes or were raised in homes plagued by abuse and drug addiction. And once they are conned into it, they feel stuck.

"Speaking from the heart, its challenging when you're dealing with juvenile victims when a majority of us in law enforcement have children and we have little girls who are maybe the same age as some of these victims," Gutierrez said.

But not every person trafficked is a victim, authorities say. And charges are being levied where they apply.

The question of what to do with victims is a major challenge in San Joaquin County, where there are no established protocols, rehabilitation programs or safe houses specifically designed to respond to individuals who have been trafficked.

But officials are making do with available resources, triaging on a case-by-case basis, while working to develop strategies.

Authorities are connecting victims to places such as The Women's Center - Youth and Family Services for shelter, clothing, counseling, referrals and a myriad of other services.

A countywide Human Trafficking Task Force made up of multiple agencies and nonprofit groups is in the process of developing an action plan and identifying funding sources for programs, said Joelle Gomez, chair of the task force and executive director of The Women's Center.

The District Attorney's Office also is contributing. Schultz is heading the creation of a Family Justice Center, which will include a human trafficking component to provide wraparound services.

Shifting the focus is leading to more education for gang investigators and deputy district attorneys.

"We had to take ownership of our case," Gutierrez said. For Gutierrez and his team, it has meant training on human trafficking laws, learning about the role social media plays and brushing up on tactics to approach victims or prostitutes to get them to open up.

It has meant offering confidentiality and listening to stories to understand how trafficked individuals ended up in such a corner.

"It's an ongoing process and we're just beginning to get a foothold in terms of the gang activity," Dennings said. "The process is a little slower because its new, but we're working it out. In the case I have, I think we're doing a lot of good to help people."

Contact reporter Jennie Rodriguez-Moore at (209) 943-8564 or jrodriguez@recordnet.com. Follow her at recordnet.com/courtsblog and on Twitter @therecordcourts.